This past Friday myself, Firda, my brother and sister-in-law, and three friends took in the music of Sarah Harmer in Hamilton, Ontario. For those unfamiliar with Ms. Harmer should know that she is a little folksy, a little rock, a little bluegrass but a lot of awesome! She recently started touring to promote her long awaited new album “Oh Little Fire” which comes out tomorrow.
As my long time readers may remember Firda and I saw Ms. Harmer in October of 2006 in Orillia, Ontario, which was a tour to promote her last album “I’m a Mountain”. Four years was a long time to wait but she didn’t disappoint. She played a lot of her new stuff while mixing in many of her more popular older songs, and we were very happy to have her play our favourite songs.
The venue was very nice as well. A small intimate setting with not a bad seat in the house. We ended up in the third row immediately in front of the talented keyboardist Julie Fader (whom I admit to having a little crush on – and have seen in concert with Sarah and the Great Lake Swimmers a total of four times now). The banter between the band members and the audience made the night even more magical. Plus the opening band “Colleen and Paul” were exceptionally apt at setting the mood for the main event.
My only peeve about the show is that the audience gave up after the first encore. I know the band were willing to come out for a second encore but the older population of the audience decided they needed to go home and sleep. Heck it took the venue a good 30 to 40 seconds to turn the lights on – which meant they weren’t planning on doing that. Though this was a minor issue and didn’t ruin the night for me.
Here’s hoping that the next album doesn’t take 5 years to emerge and the next time we get to see Ms. Harmer in concert is even sooner.